Tag: cheese

This is one of those super simple recipes. It comes from my grandma who has enjoyed it any time she was able to get the ingredients. She really likes to add a lot of cream to her recipes. I asked her about it and she said that when she was a young girl in the Second World War they had little food. Her family was from the countryside and they managed to keep a cow despite all of the difficulties. She said that sometimes these milk products coming from the cow were lifesavers and the only thing they had for the whole day. You’d think that would put a person off cream for life but instead cream and milk are my grandma’s favourite things.

About the ingredients for this recipe. The pasta grandma uses is a short, thin pasta, thin like angel hair or capellini but short. I imagine other small pasta types could be used here with success.

For sausage my grandma’s favourite choice here is hotdogs. You can also use kielbasa, wieners or anything else that you like.

You’ll also notice marjoram. If this herb is alien to you, just use oregano instead. Also, if you like your food spicy, this can be delicious with cayenne pepper.

I came up with this recipe when away on holiday. I had a jar of mayo in the fridge and knew I had to use it before the holiday was over as bringing it on the plane seemed too crazy. These muffins are really nice and moist inside and are still delicious the next day, so do try them!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup liquid reserved from the can of green peas

3 Tbsp green peas

4 mushrooms, halved and sliced

2 slices of cheese, cut into 6 pieces each to use as topping

1/2 tsp oregano

a pinch of black pepper

a pinch of dried nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Prepare a 12 hole muffin tray.

In a bowl mix eggs, mayonnaise, pepper, nutmeg and oregano.

In a separate container mix flour with salt and baking powder.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, add milk and the pea liquid and stir until just blended.

Spinach is one of those healthy foods that also happen to be tasty. I like to add a bit to many dishes but this casserole is quite packed with it. It is also an easy and quickly put together dinner or lunch for when you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. Yup, another lazy recipe.

This casserole has three cheeses so it’s definitely for the cheese enthusiast like me. But who wouldn’t like cheese?

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup dry penne pasta

1 cup cream cheese

1 standard size ball of Mozzarella (80 to 100g)

4 cups spinach leaves, chopped

1 cup milk

a handful of Parmesan shavings

1/2 tsp dried nutmeg

1/2 tsp dried chilli powder (or more if you like spicy)

1 tsp dried regano

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Put the uncooked pasta and spinach in an ovenproof dish.

Next, grab a small pot and heat the cream cheese, spices and milk in it until the cheese is more or less melted and the spices are well distributed.

Pour the mixture all over the pasta and stir.

Put the Parmesan shavings and Mozzarella on top and place in the oven.

Bake for 40 minutes. The pasta should be cooked by then.

When making one of these lazy dishes which don’t require you to pre-cook the pasta, it is important to make sure that all of the pasta shapes are covered with milk, cheese or spinach so that they cook instead of drying out.

This is a recipe for cheese muffins that can be taken in a lunch box to work. I like to eat them sliced and with salami or ham. I used partially the delicious Parmesan. Even though it’s expensive I always buy the real thing and never pre-grated. Parmesan loses its delicious aroma if it’s kept grated for a long time so I prefer to grate it myself. Also, a little Parmesan goes a long way, so I could easily top it up with some very mild tasting Norvegia, which is a Norwegian version of a Gouda-style cheese.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 c milk

2 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 cup tightly packed grated cheese, I used Parmesan and Norvegia which is a Norwegian cheese similar to Gouda; use what you like most

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

In a bowl mix oil, milk and eggs with a spatula.

In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and dried thyme. Mix those well and then add to the wet ingredients.

This is very much a comfort food for me but also a way to eat a lot of vegetables. This is a feast of vegetables in an open-faced pie.

The danger here is for the vegetable juices to run and soak the dough but as long as you do what I did, it shouldn’t happen. And I would eat this dough even when soaked because it’s delicious. You can be a bit adventurous and use different veggies if you like. I know this version tastes good. If you bought kale especially for this recipe and you’re not sure what to do with the rest of it, you can toss it in the freezer and use the same way you would use spinach later.

For the crust:

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

For the filling:

1/2 yellow bell pepper

1 big, curly kale leaf

1 garlic clove

2 Tbsp tomato puree

a handful of broccoli florets

a couple of mushrooms

a small piece of Parmesan cheese

a bigger (around 100g) piece of another cheese (I’m using a Norwegian brand called Jarlsberg)

1 tsp of dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

Start with the crust, mix all of the crust ingredients in a bowl and knead until it forms a dough ball. Leave in a warm place under plastic wrap for 30 minutes.

When you come back after that time, the dough should have risen. Knead it again to get the air out of it and cover the bowl with a plastic wrap again.

Now you can start chopping all the vegetable ingredients. Once you are half way through that process, preheat the oven to 220C/425F, the best program to use is both top and bottom heat.

Once all the vegetables are chopped, take the dough out of the bowl, spray a baking dish with cooking oil, so that the dough doesn’t stick and spread the dough all over the bottom and sides of the dish.

Don’t worry if you’re not very good with dough and there is a hole, just repair it with some leftover dough later.

Once done spread the tomato puree around the bottom and sprinkle with herbs. Next start layering the vegetables until you run out. Cover with cheese slices.

I know it’s Christmas time in a minute but that’s not an excuse to eat huge, festive cuts of meat for the whole December. Not for me anyway, since I’m not the biggest meat eater. So this is my idea for a rather cheap, easy to make dish, while our poor stomachs are getting ready for the holiday abuse.

I first learnt about quiche when I moved to Ireland many years ago but quiche actually comes from France. It’s a very light milk, cheese and egg concoction, usually in a form of an open faced pie. The crust is not supposed to be made out of potato but I never have time or patience for making crust, so sometimes I make my quiche completely crustless and now also with potato. Quiche can be made with many ingredients and this recipe is only one, simple way to make it. Google it and you’ll find a whole world of quiche if you don’t already know it. This is my take on it, anyway, with only a little meat and a lot of spinach – just how I like it.

Slice the potato thinly and use the slices to create a ‘crust’ inside the baking dish.

Spray with cooking oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 20 minutes while preparing the rest of the dish.

In a bowl, with a hand whisk blend milk and flour. Add eggs and use an electric whisk or a hand whisk if you’re the patient kind to foam and aerate the mixture. I had a very good result after 2 minutes with an electric mixer.

With a spatula, gently fold in the cheese, spinach, ham, herbs and spices.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and turn the oven down to 180C/350F.

Pour the mixture into the crust and top with broccoli florets. Push them into the quiche so that they cook rather than burn in the oven.